


Five Years in Amphibia

by Mantis21



Category: Amphibia (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Future Fic, Reunions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:14:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28531287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mantis21/pseuds/Mantis21
Summary: It's been five years since Anne and her friends arrived in Amphibia, and her hopes of returning home have since dissipated. But when Sasha suddenly reappears in her life, the idea of returning home doesn't seem so farfetched anymore. And thus Anne, Sasha, and the Planters set off on a journey across a war-torn Amphibia, searching for Marcy and a way back while being pursued by sinister forces.
Relationships: Anne Boonchuy/Sasha Waybright, Maddie Flour & Sprig Plantar
Comments: 10
Kudos: 78





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First things first; a late Happy New Year to you all. 
> 
> Now, I've been thinking about writing a Sashanne story that was more close to the canon setting than my last one, and I also wanted it to focus more on Anne's POV. After all the brainstorming, this was the result. I've written the next few chapters already, so I decided now was as good a time as any to start uploading. I'll try to keep a weekly upload schedule but we'll see how that works out :P

Hunger.

That’s all Anne felt at that moment. The cold mud she was lying in had made her body numb, particularly at her knees and arms. All that remained to feel was a biting, scratching hunger that made her stomach roar as it tried to eat itself. The hunger was so intense that Anne wanted to groan or hiss in pain, but even that she wouldn’t allow herself. She couldn’t afford to, not when the stakes were so high.

A particularly long blade of grass poking out from the soil tickled her chin. She chose to ignore that too, and keep all her focus on the prey she had spent the last hour or so stalking. She kept her eyes trained on the deer chewing grass in front of her. Its back was towards her, and it seemed unalert.

Anne couldn’t believe her luck when she first spotted that deer—deer were a rare animal in Amphibia, so rare that they were mythical, spoken about by amphibians with the same mystified yet incredulous tone that unicorns and mermaids were spoken about back home on Earth. Anne herself was completely surprised when she learned that there even were normal deer on Amphibia. She expected the deer here to shoot fire or stretch as tall as giraffes or have some other twist that made them a complete pain in the rear.

But no, as far as Anne knew, it was just a normal deer.

And the thought of filling her empty stomach with veal was too mouth-watering for her to resist.

Just as she was about to make her move, just about to reach for the sword strapped to her back and rise slowly out of the muck, a jolt of terror raced through her heart as the deer’s head suddenly rose and turned towards her. Its ears were pointed upwards, and its dark eyes seemed to be staring right at her.

_It’s now or never,_ she decided.

“AyeayeayeayeaYEA!” Anne leaped up out of the vegetation and muck with a tribal war cry. The mud she had plastered herself with to cover her scent weighed her down, but her clothes were light enough for it not to be too much of a problem. Drawing her sword, she ran towards the deer.

For one nigh-fatal second, the deer was paralyzed with confusion, but when it saw the blade in the strange creature’s hand, it knew it was time to run.

Like lightning, the deer bolted into the forest. Anne was hot in pursuit. The ground the two ran on was littered with gnarled roots that crossed each other and impeded both predator and prey, but Anne quickly figured how to use this to her advantage. She ran to the nearest tree trunk, grabbed on, and began to climb.

“Come on, it’s getting away!” she growled to herself for motivation. Her eyes started to glow blue, and suddenly she had the strength to throw herself into the branches.

The chase continued on different ground. The deer dashed as swiftly as it could across the forest floor, while Anne jumped and leaped and charged across the understory and canopy. Her glowing eyes never left her target, her growling empty pit of a stomach becoming her greatest motivator. She knew she couldn’t keep this up forever, she needed to end this before she ran out of energy and collapsed.

She had one idea; it was risky, but could work.

She flipped the sword in her arm backwards and held it like a spear. Up in the trees and above the ground, she felt like Jupiter with his lightning bolt, a mental image that brought her a small smile. With a determined roar, she threw her weapon down as hard she could, not at the deer, but at the earth in front of it.

When the deer saw the sword fall in front of it, it reared like a frightened horse. That one second of pause and confusion was all Anne needed. She threw herself towards the animal, and managed to grab onto its neck and left antler.

The deer reared again, trying to throw her off. Anne grit her teeth and tried to reach down to her sword, to finish this while she could still hold on. Her strength was leaving her quickly, and the last thing she needed was to let go.

Unfortunately, that was when her body decided to quit on her.

The deer threw her off as she went lax, and she cried as she hit the ground. Her mouth was filled with dirt that she promptly spit out. She spun around, hoping to get back on her feet in time, but it was too late.

She had just enough time to watch as her dinner disappeared into the bushes.

“Dammit!” She kicked up a plot of dirt next to her in anger, but stopped herself before she did it again. She needed to conserve her strength for the walk of shame home.

Groaning, she went to pluck her sword from the ground, as if it were a big metal flower. She wiped the blade on her sleeves, and when she figured it was clean enough, she put it back in its sheath. Then she turned around and began marching home.

The whole time, she couldn’t help but feel like the forest itself was mocking her for failing.

* * *

The sun was going down when she returned. The shadows of the trees were tall and the sky wore a beautiful array of blue, purple, and golden colors. But Anne didn’t see it; her head was hanging low in shame.

She didn’t even lift her head when she opened the door. “I’m home,” she said. She took another step forward, and she nearly stumbled over an old bucket.

She sighed. She had almost forgotten how much smaller the new Planter house was compared to the old one. And that wasn’t even the most glaring difference; the new house was not only smaller, but was way out into the woods, far from any village or city. And, most strikingly, it was built on the side of a mushroom with a tip that glowed a lapis lazuli glow. Bright enough to keep monsters away, dim enough to not bother the residents.

_So much has changed in five years,_ she realized.

The first one to greet her back was Hop Pop. He came out of the kitchen with a bowl and handkerchief in his hands. “Welcome home, Anne,” he croaked. His voice was a bit weaker than before, but it still carried its strong paternal tone. He began wiping the bowl with the cloth, and he looked Anne over. “What were you doing out there, playing in the mud?”

“A bit.” Anne sighed. “I went out to get us some food, and I was hunting this deer, but it got away. I’m sorry.”

“I see. Well, it’s good thing none of us like deer.”

“What? How can you not like deer? It tastes so good!”

“I used to say the exact same thing about bugs, and you would feel the way I feel right now,” said Hop Pop with a chuckle. “Don’t worry about hunting, Anne. We still have enough food in reserve for a day or two. I’ll go fix up some dinner right now.”

“No, don’t trouble yourself, I’ll do it,” said Anne. “You can just relax.”

“With all due respect, you look like you need the relaxation more than I do.”

Anne, reluctantly, figured he had a point.

She went to sit on their makeshift couch, careful not to put all her weight on it too suddenly. “Say Hop Pop, where is everybody else?” asked Anne.

“Oh, the kids should be coming back any second now,” answered Hop Pop from the kitchen. “I warned them not to stay out after dark. If they do, well then, I’m giving you their food.”

Anne chuckled weakly and patted her rumbling stomach. “Almost hope they do stay out late.”

It was right at that moment when there was a knock on the door, followed by them coming in.

The first one to walk in was Sprig. He had changed a lot over the past five years. His shaggy hair now poked out more from underneath his hat, and his body was much less noodley. He had grown a bit taller, but his body was more fit now, more built.

Living out and away from civilization tends to have that effect.

“Yo Anne,” said Sprig with a wave. His voice had gotten a little deeper too. “How was the hunting?”

“Don’t even talk to me about it,” groaned Anne. “Almost had it, and then I didn’t.”

“It?”

“A deer.”

“Oh. I mean, I don’t see why you’d want to hunt a deer, but...oh wait, is that a human thing? Eating deer?”

“Humans, lions, tigers, bears...it’s an everything but frog thing, I guess. But never mind that: where are the other two?”

Sprig didn’t answer. Instead, he looked like he was fighting back the urge to grin.

Anne raised an eyebrow until she heard a little giggle. “I don’t think she can see us,” said a disembodied yet familiar voice.

This was followed by a sharp shushing sound, but by then Anne had figured it out. “Polly, Maddie, are you two invisible?” she asked, with just a tiny hint of awe.

There was a snapping sound, and where there had once been empty space, there were now two female frogs, one pink and one pale. “Aw man, she noticed us,” said Polly.

“Maybe she wouldn’t have if you could keep your mouth shut,” said Maddie.

Just as Sprig had grown, both Polly and Maddie had too. More noticeably than the other. Maddie had grown a bit taller and was growing out her hair more, but Polly’s entire biology had changed. No longer was she a round tadpole confined to a bucket, she was now a fully-fledged frog, equipped with arms and legs like any other in Amphibia.

“I see your magic lessons are going well,” remarked Anne.

“There are! Maddie is teaching me so much!” said Polly excitedly. “This invisibility stuff is just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve also learned how to make sleeping potions and look through walls—”

“Wait, I never taught you that.”

Polly’s cheeks flushed red. “Oh...whoops...”

Maddie’s visible eye narrowed. “Polly, did you go through my spellbook behind my back again?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Ah, come on, Maddie,” said Sprig as he put his hands gently on her shoulders. “Forgive her this once? For me?”

With a blush crossing her face, Maddie nodded. “Just this once.”

Sprig pecked her cheek. “Thanks babe.”

It was such a comfortable scene that Anne nearly forgot all the trials and tribulations that everyone had to endure. She could almost smile, watching Sprig and Maddie and Polly banter and argue and make up for bantering and arguing, and just think about how good they had it now. They had a cozy home, they had food, and they had each other. Everything else almost slipped away…

_Almost_ slipped away.

Five years—it had been five years since Anne came to Amphibia. Back then, there was a strong sense of hope that carried her forward, and that was the hope that one day she would be able to return home. Wide-eyed Anne would go out into the world every day, a fire burning in her chest, confident that today would be one day closer to finding her friends and going back home.

But after everything, that fire was gone, and her hopes were now ash.

She wasn’t getting home, and she fully blamed Sasha and Marcy.

Perhaps full blame wasn’t justified, but she didn’t care, she wanted to blame them anyway. After what they did to her, and then turned around to do to the rest of Amphibia...her affable feelings for them were just as gone as her hope of going home. One influenced the other, creating an ouroboros of bitterness within her. And that black bitterness seemed to seem into everything. Even now, looking at Sprig and Maddie make googly-eyes at each other, she couldn’t help but recall how the only reason those two were together was because of what happened to Ivy…

“Uh, Anne?”

Her name summoned her back from the pits of her dark thoughts. “Huh, what?” she said, looking back at the frogs.

“I was just going to say, you had that scary face on again,” said Polly.

“Scary face? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, you just sometimes get really quiet and then start glaring at everything really angrily.”

Anne wasn’t aware that she did that. But it made sense. She thought about Sasha and Marcy a lot, and she got angry every time she did.

“It’s nothing,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “It’s nothing. It’s...nothing.”

The third time, she wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince.

* * *

After dinner was done and the dishes were washed, Anne retired from company and took a step outside for fresh air. The night’s air in Amphibia was always nice and cool, whether it was summer or winter, and breathing it in always made Anne feel better.

So she inhaled deeply the clean air of the outdoors, and she exhaled in a relaxed sigh. At that moment, a calm serenity overtook her, and she looked up to the sky, to the stars and planets in the great expanse of the universe. All the frustrations of hunting and angry thoughts of her former friends just dissolved away, like flakes of sugar in a swirling cup of tea. Maybe there was just something about the natural environment that made her feel so at ease. The pleasing glow of the blue-tipped mushroom was definitely helping.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad,” she remarked, “staying here forever. Maybe I don’t even need to go home.”

Of course, that wasn’t what Anne really wanted. She did want to go home, and she wanted to badly. Five years had flown by, and she could only imagine who worried her family was about her. She felt her heart sink thinking about how her mother most likely thought she was dead. And imagine what a shock it would be, when her thirteen year old missing daughter came back as an eighteen year old young woman with the frenzied, crazed look of someone who’d spent every day fighting for their lives, and insisting that she had been sent to a magical frog world.

And that made Anne think about something that terrified her: was it even possible to go home at this point?

That question frightened her the same way others were frightened of the question of what happens after death, so she pushed it to the back of her mind. Whether it was possible to still go home after spending her teenage years here, in this crazy world, would not even be a question that needed answering, since she knew she’d never have the chance to go home anyway. So now it was all about trying to adjust to a post-hope world, a world where she didn’t have anymore delusions about ever leaving Amphibia.

Anne sighed. Her face scrunched up, and tears almost spilled out of her eyes, but she fought them back. Sniffling, she looked up again, to the glowing moon in Amphibia’s sky, and nodded confidently.

This was her world now, as it had been half a decade. And she needed to learn to make the best of it.

With that grim revelation in her mind, she turned around, deciding to go back inside and talk about casual things with her adoptive family, so she wouldn’t go to bed depressed. But just as she wrapped her hand around the brass doorknob, ready to turn it, she heard something that instantly put her in an agitated state.

In the woods, she could hear someone running towards them.

Without thinking, Anne spun around and cleanly ripped her sword from its scabbard. She took a defensive stance, weapon out in front of her, and eyes fixed in the direction of the sound. The footsteps were too light to be a giant monster, so Anne reached the conclusion that it was actually something worse than a monster: it was a soldier.

Perhaps now would be a good time for the reader to know that Amphibia was at war.

A civil war, to be precise. One waged across the lands and seas, between _him_ and _them_.

Him being Captain Grime, leader of the great Toad Rebellion.

Them being the elite of Newtopia, the oligarchy that ruled Amphibia.

The humble frog villages, of course, were caught in the middle of the brutality and carnage.

Anne fought for neither side, and cared not for who should win. All she cared about was the Planters. She and her adoptive family had suffered enough at the hands of both newts and toads, and she had promised herself that she would do anything to protect them from any more harm.

“And maybe that means bringing the fight to them,” she whispered.

Thank Frog she had eaten, because now she had the strength to bolt into the forest and run towards the approaching threat. She slashed any vegetation in her way, and she kept her eyes peeled. The moon was out bright tonight, which made surveying the area easier.

She caught sight, out of the corner of her eye, of a silhouette, one that was tall and slender. _A newt,_ she instantly thought, and her blood went cold. Truthfully, she was more afraid of the newts than the toads, because the newts had law enforcement and a standing army behind them. Kill a toad, you’re a hero, but kill a newt, and you become a public menace to be hunted by every violent arm of the state.

The thought of Newtopia chasing her to the ends of the earth didn’t scare her so much as the thought of Newtopia chasing the Planters down for her mistakes. They had already suffered enough because of her, and that thought made Anne lower her blade to the ground.

“Hey!” she shouted at the shadowed figure. She made her voice gruffer, more intimidating. “Who are you? What are you doing out here?”

The figure stopped in its tracks. Anne was about to rush over to it when she heard it speak:

“Anne? Is...is that you?”

Anne’s eyes widened, and her body froze.

That voice...no, it couldn’t be…

The figure stepped out from the dark thicket, under the moonlight where Anne could get a good look at them. They were no newt, Anne immediately noted, when she saw the fair Caucasian skin and long blonde hair and red eyes and beauty mark on one cheek and scar on the other…

“Sasha?” gasped Anne.

Sasha looked in bad shape, worse than Anne had ever seen her. Her hair was frazzled, her armor cut, and her face and body were littered with fresh cuts that oozed blood. But there was no mistaking it, it was Sasha.

“Anne,” repeated Sasha, like she couldn’t believe her eyes, like this was a dream.

That was the last thing she said before she collapsed on the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

For a long time, she was statuesque in her stillness. The whole night she slept without a stir or even a twitch. Anne would know; she watched over her the entire time, observing every inch of her body through bloodshot, sleepless eyes. When she saw her first move, she at first thought it was a hallucination. But soon, as sunlight began to spill in from the window and onto her face, she began to moan and squirm, as if something was hurting her, as if she were trying to run from it.

“No, don’t...please...go away...”

The troubled pleas reach their peak as a scream of pure terror that ripped through Sasha’s throat as she shot up off the ground, awake and alert.

Now Anne reached the hilt of her sword.

At first, Sasha didn’t notice her. Her vision were too clouded by fear. Panting, sweating, the pale girl hugged herself. After moments of this, she blinked, her mind more lucid, and she suddenly noticed the fur blanket that was wrapped around her and the slim mattress between her and the ground. She blinked again, confused, then looked up and saw that she wasn’t outside, collapsed in the dirt, but inside someone’s home.

Her eyes scanned the room until they landed on Anne.

Neither girl spoke. Neither girl was sure how to react. Sasha rubbed her eyes and looked again at the mirage that looked like her long-lost friend, but when that mirage didn’t disappear, she realized that no, that was the real, actual Anne sitting right there.

“I thought seeing you was just a dream,” were the first words exchanged between them in years.

“I wish this was just a dream,” Anne harshly remarked.

* * *

When the Planters woke up, Anne no longer felt the need to stand watch (as it were) and finally turned in for some sleep herself. She slept poorly, just three or four hours, but it was the best she was going to get. Her brain felt fried after her all-nighter, but that didn’t stop it from dwelling on the big question.

_What is she doing here?_

“It doesn’t make sense,” Anne grumbled as she tore her blanket off and stood up. “Isn’t she Grime’s little general now? What is she doing here, away from the fighting. And why was she all alone?”

None of it made any sense to her. Unless things had changed (which granted, they very well might have after so many years), Sasha was the strong, smart, and sexy second-in-command to Grime, one of the most important figures of the toad side of the civil war. From what Anne had heard from gossip and newspapers, she was proving herself to all of Amphibia as a great fighter, a competent leader, and an attractive face for propaganda posters. It was only two weeks ago that Anne was hearing about how Sasha and a band of toads had infiltrated a POW camp to liberate all their captured comrades. Toad sympathizers sang her praises, newt loyalists cursed her name, and Anne remembered just being so sick of hearing about her.

What had changed between then and now, that brought the famous face of the revolution to her doorstep?

The more Anne thought about it, the more she realized she really didn’t care.

She just wanted her out of her life again.

She went back into the other room, and found Sasha still where she was, on her little cot of a bed. She had a tin bowl in her hands, out of which she scooped soup to eat.

Anne didn’t get a good chance to see how Sasha had shaped up before. She was more focused on the many bloody cuts that patterned her body, and the bruises all over her flesh, like the spots on a giant leopard-beetle’s skin. But now, with most of those bandages and the added bonus of clear daylight, Anne could see that Sasha had grown up really well. The stress of fighting a war barely showed on her. Her hair was longer and more smooth than before, and she had grown taller and more fit. What little fat she had before was gone, replaced by leanness. 

Then Anne’s eyes lowered, and her gaze went almost instinctively to Sasha’s breasts. They had grown too, much to her dismay. They weren’t exactly plump, but they were round and perfectly symmetrical.

For a moment, Anne, who always felt like her right boob was bigger than her left, was filled with envy. _At least mine are bigger,_ she thought with savage juvenility.

She then stopped dwelling on breast angst, because she was a real person with personality and depth rather than a poorly-written fanfiction character by a male writer who understands women about as well as he understands astro-informatics.

“Good morning,” she said, deliberately looking away from Sasha and at the Planters eating breakfast at their table. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasha look up, then look back down when she saw Anne wasn’t talking to her. Anne felt like grinning.

“Good morning Anne,” said Hop Pop. “We made soup.”

“I can see. Hook me up, Soup Pop.”

Hop Pop grabbed a wooden bowl and poured some soup in from the steaming pot. Anne graciously took it from him and lifted it to her nose. Smelled like basil and mushroom...delicious.

She was about to sit down to eat when she noticed no chair for her. “Uh, guys, where’s my chair?”

“Uh, Anne...don’t you think it would be better if you sat somewhere else today?”

Hop Pop’s eyes subtly gestured towards their new guest, and Anne frowned. She realized what they were doing; forcing her to go sit next to Sasha and talk to her, and see if she could get why Sasha was here now. Crafty little devil frogs.

“Fine,” she said reluctantly.

Hop Pop smiled. It was both apologetic and proud. The classic “thank you for doing this” smile, as if they were all in school and Hop Pop was the teacher trying to get Anne to play with the friendless kid.

Anne took her breakfast and went to sit next to Sasha. She didn’t sit on one of her blankets, but on the ground next to it. The floor was surprisingly rough, but Anne didn’t let it bother her. She was more bothered by the way Sasha was looking at her. The way her pupils were, it was like Anne’s hair was on fire or something.

“Hey,” grunted Anne.

“Hey,” replied Sasha. She stirred her bowl slightly. “Did they send you over here to talk to me?”

“They didn’t explicitly say to. Take that how you will.”

“I see.” Another stir of the bowl. “Anne, I know this is sudden, but can I talk to you after breakfast? Outside? Alone?”

Anne’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “So you can lure me out and attack me while my guard is down?”

Sasha flinched, hurt by Anne’s words. She quickly recovered though, and raised her hand. She kept her palm flat, and rocked it back and forth.

“My hand was broken,” she explained, “when you found me yesterday. I wouldn’t even be able to move it at all if it weren’t for that emo frog girl over there. She used magic to fix it, but she warned me that the magic was an on-going process, and if I did anything to threaten any one of you, she’d remove the charm and that would make it even worse.”

Her voice sounded genuine, and perhaps that’s what calmed Anne down. She had been subject to Sasha’s manipulation before, but that voice she used when she was being manipulative—that silky, sly, friendly-but-with-a-warning-edge tone—was not the one she was speaking with now. The fact that she was even speaking to her like this at all, especially for their first reunion in years, hinted to Anne that something serious was going on, and that it would be best for everyone if she listened.

So she sighed, and took a spoonful of soup and ate it. “Okay, fine,” she ultimately said. “It’s...just so weird. Seeing you again, after all this time...after everything you did...”

Sasha opened her mouth, likely to defend herself, but thought better of it.

“I know. It’s weird for me too,” she said. Then she smiled. “But it’s also really good to see you again, girl. You look great.”

Anne didn’t respond. Sasha’s smile slowly slid off her face, and she turned her gaze back to her bowl of soup.

They didn’t say another word to each other until breakfast was done.

* * *

“So here’s how this is going to work: I ask the questions, you answer.”

The two of them were outside now, standing by the edge of the forest. A wind was breezing past them, shaking the leaves of the trees. It made Sasha nervous and jumpy listening to it, because she knew that something—or someone—could use those rustling branches as cover in order to get close enough to her to strike.

But that couldn’t happen here, she tried to convince herself. No, she had gotten away, and there was no way anyone could have followed her all the way out here, to the middle of bumfuck nowhere county. Honestly, she was even surprised she found anyone out here at all, and then was double-surprised when it turned out to be her long-lost friend Anne Boonchuy.

Sasha had never thought about what she would do if she ever saw Anne again. She knew what to do with Marcy, since Marcy was her enemy in the war, but Anne had just disappeared, and any feelings between them were unresolved, maybe never to be explored again. Sometimes, Sasha was worried that she was dead. But she wasn’t, and Sasha was thrilled to see that...but then Anne didn’t look thrilled to see her at all. At best, she gave her cold silence, and at worst she glared at her with the anger that a heron glares at egg-poachers.

Did Anne hate her now? Probably not, she wouldn’t have woken up inside her and her little frog friends’ house if she did. But not letting someone die on the cold ground was a pretty low bar to clear in terms of not hating someone.

Still, it made Sasha feel nice that Anne would still take care of her like that. Maybe there was a chance...

“Sasha!” barked Anne.

“Huh? What?” Sasha shook her head. She didn’t realize she had gone silent. She nodded her head affirmatively. “Yes, of course. I’ll answer the best I can.”

She was hoping to ask some questions too, but she would be patient. There was plenty of time to turn the conversation in a more favorable direction.

Anne didn’t waste any time getting to the hard-hitting questions: “Did you come here looking for me?”

“Looking for you? Anne, don’t flatter yourself, not everything I do revolves around you," she said. She intended it to be playful but quickly regretted that, realizing too late that now was not the time for playful. So she continued more evenly: "I didn’t even know you or anyone else was out here. Isn’t this pretty far away from your frog village?”

“I said I’m asking the questions.”

“Fine, just curious.”

“So if you didn’t know anyone was out here, what are you doing here?”

“I didn’t come here for any reason,” answered Sasha. “I was just...running. Trying to get away. I only ended up in the forest because it was a good place to take cover. A few miles later, and I ended up collapsing in front of you.”

Anne’s eyes narrowed; not from suspicion, but from an innate sense of danger. Her gaze tilted briefly to the forest besides them. “Trying to get away from who?” she asked.

“Newts.”

“So newts attacked you directly? Huh, didn’t think they would be that bold. Although I’d also think one of the leaders of the Rebellion would have bodyguards to protect her or something.”

Upon hearing this, Sasha blinked, confused. Anne noticed this, and cocked her head. “What?”

“Wait...d-did you not hear?”

“Not hear what?”

“Oh my God...the news must not get to you people out here...”

“What are you talking about?”

Sasha wet her lips, then exhaled slowly. “Anne, we...our side lost. The Toad Rebellion is done for. We had a crushing defeat. It's over, and we disbanded.”

“What? You disbanded? I can’t believe that, there’s no way that Grime would allow that!”

When Grime’s name was mentioned, Sasha felt an ache in her chest. She felt like her heart was being squeezed. She looked away from Anne, down to the ground. She bit her lip, as if holding something back.

Anne saw this, and before Sasha said it, she knew what had happened.

“Anne...Grime is dead.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to tag along? I told you I could scout this place out by myself.”

If Grime heard his second-in-command’s protests, he didn’t humor them with an answer. Instead, he grunted, and marched slightly ahead of the nervous Sasha. The young woman could only roll her eyes; for such an old bull, he really did love acting like a child.

But then again, maybe that’s what this was about; Grime wasn’t as young as he used to be, and no matter how hard he tried to hide it, Sasha could see some disappointment in his glowing eye every time he deployed his troops and watched them go. He was disappointed that he couldn’t go with them anymore, she had come to realize. He could train and fight all he wanted back at base, but all that was little more than staying fit if he didn’t get to fight.

But what Sasha wished he could understand was that it wasn’t just about his age, it was also that he was their leader! He was Grime, commander of the Toad Rebellion, with the respect and strategic mind needed to fight this revolution against the newt oligarchs. He inspired everyone to fight this war for the heart of the homeland—even her, and she wasn’t even from around here.

_But I am stuck here,_ she thought, _probably for as long as I live. I really should get into the mindset that I’m not just fighting for the toads, but also for myself, for how I’m going to spend the rest of my life here._

For a moment, she thought about her old ambition of getting home. It had been her main driver before, but after everything that had happened with her and Marcy...

Her lips curled into a thin smile.

_Boy, will they wish they had stayed with me after we win this war._

Speaking of the war, that’s what brought them out here. The two of them were hiking up the side of a tall and winding mountain. They’d received intelligence that a small squadron of newts had established a base somewhere near the top. The scout hadn’t figured out why, but Sasha had a hypothesis.

“Grime?”

“Mmm?”

“Those newts at the top...what do you think they’re doing here?”

“I’m guessing you already have an idea, and want to know how smart you are for coming to it?”

Sasha shrugged, smirking. “Something like that.”

Grime chuckled lowly, and scratched at his gray whiskers. Crumbs and dandruff fell from it, but Sasha made no note. Grime’s eyes looked upward, to the mountain’s tip above their heads, and nodded.

“Apodaium?”

Sasha nodded. “That’s what I was thinking too.”

Apodaium. That strange glowing mineral that was once only fit for the jewelry of the nobility, but was now the base for a lot of Newtopia’s newfangled technology and weaponry. It had made the playing field extremely uneven between the two sides; where once the toads and newts fought with spears and swords, now the toads found themselves uselessly waving their sticks as their enemies comfortably loaded Apodaium canons and fired on their bases from a distance. And that was just the beginning; thanks to Apodaium, rifles had become a reality in Amphibia, and that turned the tide of many battles that could’ve otherwise been won.

Sasha could never confirm it, but she knew deep down that Marcy was behind all that innovation.

She hissed angrily, always upset with herself for never getting Marcy on their side. And after all the comrades she lost to the newts, to their Apodaium weapons...she didn’t much care for being allies with Marcy anymore anyway. And if they ever met, Sasha would feel much less reluctant about killing her than she would have five years ago.

She shook her head, eyes widening in surprise. _That was a lot darker than usual,_ she thought.

She was pulled completely out of her thoughts when she heard wheezing and huffing. She looked back to Grime, and watched as he clutched his side and squeezed. His pain was apparent in how he had to lean on the mountain to stay on his feet.

“Grime!”

“I’m fine! I’m fine!” He waved his massive arm and tried to straighten himself out. It took some help from Sasha, which he wasn’t happy about, but he still grunted, “Thank you.”

“This is what I was talking about!” shouted Sasha. In her anger, she even slapped his shoulder-pad. “I knew this would be too hard for you!”

“Hard, schmard! I can still do this. I’m not useless.”

“Grime, you’re not useless,” said Sasha exasperatedly, “but you’re also not the toad you used to be. You just can’t keep acting like this, you’ll get yourself killed.”

“But...but...”

“Grimesey, please, listen to me." Sasha's tone was desperate, caring, and that was enough to make Grime listen. "You’re not useless, okay? You could never be useless. You’re the leader of our revolution. You’re the one who got up off your butt all those years ago, reassembled all the toads, and started this fight. And it’s one of the most important fights this world has ever seen. A fight for freedom, for liberty, for the people to not have to live under the boot of Newtopia, for you and the toads to not have to work as their enforcers, bullying the oppressed on behalf of the oppressors until the oppressors get tired of using you and throwing you away. This is big, Grimesey; bigger than you or me. But we’re still important to it, and we have to give everything we can. Not less...but also not more. Because that’s when we become useless.”

Sasha didn’t mean to produce a passionate spiel as she did, but when she was done, she could see that she had changed something in Grime. Now, he didn’t so stubborn and bull-headed; on the contrary, he seemed embarrassed by how he was acting. It wasn’t courage or determination that was driving him, he was now coming to realize, but childishness and selfishness.

“I think you’re right,” admitted Grime with a deep sigh. “Forgive me, comrade, but all this time I’ve been sitting on my chair and barking orders at whatever poor toad I could find in earshot...and I’ve felt impotent and useless. I suppose I...I suppose I wanted to prove my value to our cause.”

“Your value is that you’re an amazing leader,” said Sasha with a kind smile, “and a great friend.”

The toad smiled. “I’m proud to call you comr...to call you friend, Sasha Waybright.”

Sasha chuckled. “Who could’ve known that when we met all those years ago, as prisoner and warden, that we would’ve ended up like this? Armed rebels on the side of a mountain?”

Grime opened his mouth to respond, but an answer never came out.

There was a rustling in the shrubbery above, and before either of them could look at it, a bright flash of blue erupted from it. A crackling filled the air, followed by the overpowering smell of oxides.

Right before her eyes, Grime’s head erupted into bloody viscera.

* * *

Sasha had to stop telling her story. Tears had already been falling from her eyes as she recounted his last words to her, but reciting how he had died was too much for her. Sniffling, she turned away from Anne. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered, wiping her wet eyes with her arm.

Anne could only stand there, with a sense of hollowness.

_Grime is...actually gone?_

It just didn’t seem real to her. Already her mind was going through everything she remembered about the toad commander, and the idea of him dying just seemed...impossible. Especially in the way he did. The Grime she remembered would only die if he were swarmed by a legion of newts riding on the backs of scorpions, and even then he would only go down laughing and hollering to the heavens as he sliced and diced through the mob. Being sniped from afar...just didn’t seem right.

But then again, does a death ever seem right?

Sasha whimpered again, and Anne set aside her anger and resentment to set over to her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She could feel Sasha jolt at her touch, as if she weren’t expecting it, but she didn’t turn around or push her hand away.

“Thanks,” said Sasha hoarsely, once she was done. She turned around, still red in the face, but her eyes were dry again.

“No problem,” said Anne. “And, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for your loss. He was a great man.”

That wasn’t empty flattering or speaking well of the dead. Anne had more than a million disagreements with Grime, and she had never liked him. But still, she had respected him. He was gruff and mean, but courageous and devoted. He had to be, to be a rebel leader, and it made it easier to respect him than the soft yet sadistic newts he opposed, who lived behind their walls and sent out soldiers to do their atrocities for them.

Of course, that brought an important question to Anne’s mind…

“So what about the Toad Rebellion now?” asked Anne. “What now, now that Grime has di...passed away?”

Sasha blinked, but then a look of understanding came over her. “Right, of course, if you didn’t hear about Grime, then of course you wouldn’t have heard about the rest.”

“The rest?”

“We disbanded,” said Sasha. “That day was an especially bad day for us. That day, we lost a crucial battle elsewhere, at the ruins of the former Dandy Lion Inn. So many toads were lost, the newts were brutal and made sure to leave no survivors. And while we were dealing with the chaos of Grime’s death and learning about our loss, a spy in our midst ran off and gave the newts our most important intel. At least two toad captains were captured after that.”

“Jeez...”

“It was too much for the others. All too much. We had a consul, and I was the only one who argued to keep fighting. It's...it’s over, Anne, they surrendered in exchange for amnesty. The war, the revolution, the insurgency, whatever you want to call it...it’s over. They were celebrating in Newtopia and the cities, the victory of the noble newts over chaos and terrorism.”

“And you?” asked Anne. “What about you?”

Sasha paused for a moment, hesitant to reveal. Anne could see something on her former friend’s face that she didn’t always see; indecision. She was conflicted. A far cry from the Sasha of five years ago, who always knew what she wanted and always knew how to recuperate if she couldn’t get it.

Ultimately, Sasha sighed.

“They gave amnesty to all the others,” she explained, “but they knew that I had pushed for the revolution to continue. I knew it was a stupid thing to do, but...but I just couldn’t let Grime’s death be in vain, Anne!”

“So...you’re still wanted? You’re still on the run?”

Anne’s eyes widened when Sasha nodded to confirm her suspicions.

“So last night, when I found you coming out of the forest, all beaten and bloodied up...”

Sasha gulped, but still said, “I was on the run. Just running, with no idea where to go. Days passed until I came to this forest, and just when I thought I might be able to get away and hide, some lone newt hunter recognized me and attacked me. I managed to get away, but...”

“But?”

Sasha looked Anne dead in the eyes, and a sense of dread crawled over her.

“But so did he.”

* * *

“It’s too dangerous, we can’t let her stay.”

Sprig was the first to say what was on the collective conscious of the family. Of course, it was easy for him to be so bold and forthcoming when everyone but Sasha had been called for a meeting, but Anne suspected he would’ve said the same if she were around.

Around the small wooden table, heads were nodding. Polly and Maddie nodded enthusiastically, Hop Pop more thoughtfully. Only Anne was still, but she looked like she was deep in contemplation, neither for nor against Sasha’s ejection from the premises.

And that honestly surprised her.

Why should she be so hesitant? Even if Sasha had been through a lot, she didn’t owe her shit. If anything, Sasha owed her and the rest of them an apology for bringing danger to them. They couldn’t house the most wanted fugitive in the Valley for too long before someone got wind of her presence. And even if they could...why would they?

_What has Sasha brought me these last few years other than suffering?_

Their time as friends back on Earth seemed like grainy memory. What was more clear were the fights they had here. Fights where either of them could’ve killed the other. And even that was a long time ago, before Anne separated herself from Sasha and Marcy for good. Every since then, all she could really feel was a burning, quasi-hateful resentment of how the two kept her from ever seeing home again.

Really, it should’ve been an easy choice. Tell her to kick rocks to protect your new family and bask in that vicious glow of schadenfreude when that scared look crossed her face.

But then...there was something about that imagined scared face that plucked at Anne’s few remaining heartstrings.

So against all her better judgment, she decided to play devil’s advocate.

“Look, I’m as unhappy about this as everyone else,” started Anne. “Maybe even more than the rest of you. She took so much from me. But...this'll sound weird, but what if we didn’t kick her out?”

Sprig’s eyes widened. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Anne, of all people, standing up for her?

“Sorry, Anne, but we can’t. And even we could, we shouldn’t,” insisted Sprig. “Sasha’s done nothing but make our lives—make our whole world—worse! She treated you like crap on your home, she stopped you from getting back there, and she helped cause this whole stupid civil war to happen. If she didn’t...if she and the toads never started their rebellion...then maybe...maybe...”

It was getting hard for Sprig to talk. Maddie rose up and touched him gently, calming and soothing him.

“He’s right, Anne,” came the weary voice of Hop Pop. He didn’t sound thrilled at the prospect, but he didn’t sound like he had a choice either. “After everything she’s done, she needs to face justice.”

“Justice? Come on, Hop Pop, you don’t actually think the newts are in the right here?”

“Maybe justice wasn’t the best word,” he admitted. “I don’t think the newts would give it to her. But still, she’s a wanted criminal. She’s done a lot of bad things and had a hand in other bad things. There needs to be some kind of punishment, just or not.”

“But it just seems lik—”

“ _Even if_ we wanted to give her quarter,” continued Hop Pop, with a sterner hitch to his voice, “where could we keep her? Where would she hide? This place is small enough as is. And it’s not like we can go back to the old place.”

“Thanks to her,” grumbled Sprig.

“Not as much as you think, but yes, to an extent,” Hop Pop said to his grandson. 

Hearing all this, Anne felt herself stuck at an emotional crossroads. She felt as if she standing at the center of two crisscrossing paths, one the golden and shimmering path of generosity and the other the dark and dingy path of apathy. The latter seemed more appealing for her to go down; she had no real argument for why they should all risk their hides for Sasha, and she had no reason to think of one. Sprig was right, and Anne knew it. She probably knew it more than he did. What did Sasha ever bring her that was ever positive?

Memories of their younger selves laughing together at a sleepover floated to the front of her mind, only to be beaten back by all the struggles of the last five years. Every monster attack, every poisoning scare, every single time she had to go out and hunt for food so that her new family wouldn’t starve, every night she went and sat outside, looked up at the stars, and thought about the old family she had left behind who she could never return to partially because of her...

Anne’s hands tightened, balled up into fists, veins poking out.

_It’s her fault. So much of this is her fault._

And yet, there was something kind inside her. A tenderness that she had a hard time repressing. An inner voice, whispering to her to forgive. _Yes, this_ _i_ _s Sasha’s fault,_ it told her, _but you can’t just leave her to die._

She was at the crossroads. She had to choose which way to walk.

She closed her eyes, took a small breath, and made up her mind.

* * *

It was a familiar sensation, what Sasha was feeling. Stuck in Anne’s room, her body pressing on the door, hearing indiscernible muttering and arguing right outside. She knew her fate was being decided, and there wasn’t much she could do other than stay in the dark room. It felt like she was bound here, with her chains made of shadows rather than metal.

That was when she realized why it all felt so familiar; it was how she spent her post-arrival period in Amphibia.

She had never forgotten how she had been chained and jailed by Grime when she first arrived in his strange, slimy world. She didn’t forget the slop and gruel she had been given, or how unclean her cell had been. Maybe that was why she made sure that any newts they took as POWs were treated well. Not just because it made them more willing to open up to spilling some secrets, made handoffs and prisoner trades with the enemy army easier, or because it made newts in future battles more willing to surrender as they didn’t fear the prospect of torture, but because even as she warmed up to Grime, even as he became her best friend in this new world, she never forgot what it felt like to be caged.

And now, she realized she would gladly live the rest of her life behind rusted bars if it meant Grime would still be alive.

She laughed sadly; what did that even have to do with anything? Her imprisonment status wasn’t correlated with Grime’s lifespan in some esoteric, mathematical way. But it was just the idea of bargaining, the idea that she would do anything to have him back.

She wasn’t as over his death as she thought. She thought she’d have reached a reluctant acceptance by now, but maybe she wasn’t ready for that yet.

The doorknob began to shake, and Sasha pushed everything about Grime out of her mind as she leaped up and backed away from the door. Right now, she had to focus on keeping herself alive.

Was Anne really going to throw her out? She was about to find out.

Anne stepped into the room. Her face was too neutral for Sasha to read, which surprised her. Anne used to be so expressive back then, you could almost always tell how she was feeling by just a quick glance.

_She’s older now, Sash. And she’s probably a lot more bitter._

Sasha gulped nervously.

Anne opened her mouth, then closed it. Then she nodded, then sighed, then ran her hand through her messy hair.

“We talked it over,” she told her, “about hiding you here.”

Sasha nodded. “And?”

“And no. You can’t stay.”

An electric jolt ran through Sasha’s body. She was shocked. She knew being kicked out and sent on her way was a possibility, but she didn’t imagine they would force her out _right now_. Nor did she expect the smooth frostiness in which Anne delivered the verdict.

“You can’t kick me out!” protested Sasha. “I-I won’t last long out there. The newts will hunt me down, they’ll find me—”

“Right, which is why we can’t let you stay here,” said Anne. “Sooner or later, one of them will sniff you out and find their way here...and then what? Should we all risk our lives to save _you_?”

There was a strong disdain in the emphasis Anne put on her last word. It hurt Sasha, but it also angered her.

“So this is it, huh?” growled Sasha back, her eyebrows lowering. “After everything, you’re just throwing me to the wolves?”

Usually this would be enough to get Anne to take back what she said, but this wasn’t a usual time. The fact that Anne wasn’t the same person as before became abundantly clear to Sasha when Anne, rather than backing down, began glaring as well. She dug her heels into the floor, physically standing her ground.

“Actually, it’s throwing you to the newts,” she said with a twisted smile.

Sasha’s eyes widened. “You...you...”

Then she shook her head, and crossed her arms defiantly. Her fiery eyes met Anne’s. It felt like crooked daggers were flying between them.

“I’m staying here,” said Sasha, slowly, clearly, “until I know it’s safe for me to leave.” And then, with just the smallest hint of a smirk, she pulled out an old reliable:

“End. Of. Discussion.”

She knew that was bound to make Anne mad. She wasn’t even surprised when her eyes began to lightly glow that sleek shade of blue. And when Anne took her first step towards her, Sasha was ready for the fight...

Both girls stopped when they heard a knocking sound.

“Was that...the front door?” said Anne.

She shot one last nasty look at Sasha before going out of her room. Polly was standing near the door, and she looked to Anne for instruction. Anne shook her head and gestured for her to get away from it. She went over to the door herself, her heart beating nervously.

Living out in the middle of nowhere made visits a rare occurrence. Friendly visits were even rarer. For every lost traveler that needed direction, there were thieves and bandits and killers and other unsavory types that made answering the door a risky task. But Anne suspected whoever was knocking the door wouldn’t be the criminal type—in fact, she knew exactly what type would be standing on the other side of the door.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she opened the door and found two newts in armor standing there.

_Soldiers._

Before one of them even spoke, Anne knew what— _who_ —they were after.

“Good afternoon, er, ma’am,” the one on the right said. He was shorter and fatter than his friend, and his skin was a light shade of blue in contrast with his buddy’s dark red. “Sorry to bother you, but this is urgent business.”

“It’s no problem,” said Anne.

“I appreciate that. We won’t be too long, just want to ask a few questions,” said Blue. He cleared his throat. “Do you, by any chance, happen to know who Sasha Waybright is?”

_I knew it. They’re here for Sasha._

Red scoffed by his side. “Come on, of course she knows who Sasha is. Look at her, she’s human, just like Sasha. They have a hive mind thing, they all know each other.”

“That’s not true,” corrected Anne with strained politeness.

“Yeah, sure it’s not true. Next you’ll be telling me that your skulls don’t emit beeping noises when another human is around.”

“That’s true, everyone knows human skulls beep when they’re around each other,” agreed Blue. “That’s how we know she’s not hiding here. Cause you ain’t beeping.”

Anne groaned, and rubbed her forehead. She decided not to even dignify that with a response. Besides, maybe she could use this to her advantage.

“To answer your question,” said Anne, circling back to the main point, “yes, I do know Sasha.”

“Good. And are you aware that Sasha is currently the most wanted criminal in the Valley?”

Anne nodded.

“Then you should also know,” continued Blue, his voice becoming sterner, “that it is your duty as a law-abiding citizen to inform us on any knowledge you may possess concerning her or her whereabouts.”

“Rumors, credible rumors, have it that Sasha is in this area, probably in these woods,” said Red. “Of course, she might have moved on by now, but we just wanted to make sure about whether the locals—that would be you—have any info for us.”

Anne was about to respond, when a voice rang out from inside. “Anne, what’s going on?” came Hop Pop’s voice. A moment later, he had stepped in the visible line of light.

“Good afternoon, sir,” said Blue. “We were just asking your...um...”

“Granddaughter,” said Hop Pop, coming up to Anne’s side. “Adopted granddaughter.”

In spite of herself, Anne smiled warmly.

“Right, of course.” The focus of the two newts shifted away from Anne, fully towards Hop Pop. They seemed a lot more comfortable now that he was here to talk to. Probably because he wasn't a mammal...or a woman. Who knows with soldiers? 

They repeated their questions to Hop Pop, making sure he knew who she was. When he assured them that he did, they then asked their main question: “Do you have any info about Sasha’s current whereabouts?”

“No, I’m afraid I do not,” was the old frog’s answer.

Anne’s eyes widened. Before she could correct him, the lean red-skinned newt leaned in closer, his eyes tight in a menacing squint. “Not to imply anything, _sir_ , but you are aware that lying to officers of the law is a criminal offense, right? Especially if it’s to keep a terrorist fugitive out of our grasp.”

“I’m well aware,” Hop Pop said with a solemn nod. “I wish I could tell you boys where she is, but we haven’t seen hide or hair of her. Isn’t that right, Anne?”

Anne didn’t know what Hop Pop was playing at, but she decided to play along. “Yeah, that’s right. We don’t know anything about where Sasha might be. Sorry.”

Blue sighed. “Well, usually we’d search the house just in case, but, you know." He tapped his skull. "No beeping.”

Hop Pop looked confused. Anne just kept smiling.

“Thank you for your time. We’ll report back to the captain to keep looking elsewhere. You folks have a good day.”

“You too. Thank you,” said Hop Pop as he closed the door. He looked up at Anne, his eyebrow up. “Beeping?”

“Never mind that,” said Anne. “Hop Pop, why did you l—”

He quickly shushed her, putting his finger to his lip. He pressed the side of his head to the door, listening to the newts walk away. Once they were a good distance away, he stepped back and sighed. “Why did I lie to those two?” he repeated. She nodded, and he sighed again. “I know what I said before, about Sasha not being allowed to stay here. But...well, that doesn’t mean I’m going to give her over to Newtopia.”

“Hop Pop...”

“But it’s not just about this being the right thing to do,” he continued. “I took some time to think about it, Anne, and I realized something. Something that could get you back home.”

At that, Anne’s eyes widened.

What? Something that could get her back home? No, no, no way. It was impossible. After all this time, it...she was almost too scared to let herself believe.

She studied his expression, and he looked gravelly serious.

He was telling the truth. 

Anne tried to fight down the nervous butterflies in her stomach as she repeated, in a hushed tone, “Something that could get me back home?”

Hop Pop nodded.

“You haven't forgotten about the music box, have you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in this chapter; I was in the hospital when Tuesday came around, and I was basically unable to do anything other than watch TV. But don't worry, I'm fine now. However, I am still in a state of recovery and am suffering some severe writer's block, and thus I'll be putting this story on hiatus for a while, just to get my energy and and everything else back up. 
> 
> Until then, take care everyone!


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